Fox News Renews Contract with Bill O’Reilly
A New York Times article reported on Saturday that Fox News renewed Bill O’Reilly’s contract despite knowing that the top-rated network host had settled a new sexual harassment claim. O’Reilly reached a private $32 million settlement with former Fox News legal analyst, Lis Wiehl, in January of this year.
This is not O’Reilly’s first sexual harassment settlement either; it is his sixth. The five other settlements, starting in 2002, and all involving women who worked at Fox, were made public by The New York Times this past April. From these six settlements, it has been discovered that O’Reilly has paid a total of $45 million.
This is not the first high the profile sexual harassment settlement connected to Fox News. In July 2016, former host Gretchen Carlson sued chairman Roger Ailes, and received $20 million. More allegations of sexual misconduct arose against Ailes, which led to his dismissal soon after.
Lis Wiehl had been a repeated guest analyst on O’Reilly’s show, The O’Reilly Factor, since 2001, and made her last appearance on December 20, 2016. On January 2, Wiehl threatened to sue O’Reilly and drew up a draft discussing sexual harassment allegations. The New York Times reports that the allegations included, “repeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to her.” A copy of the draft complaint was soon received by parent company 21st Century Fox.
O’Reilly handled the complaint privately and settled with Wiehl after several days of negotiation. The terms of the deal included that Wiehl would be paid for her silence, all communications between her and O’Reilly would be destroyed, and that she would not sue O’Reilly, Fox News, or 21st Century Fox.
On January 17, Wiehl signed an affidavit rescinding all her claims of allegations against O’Reilly. 21st Century Fox then received documentation about the agreement, but it did not disclose the dollar amount of the settlement.
During this time, Megyn Kelly, another major host at Fox News, announced her departure to NBC, making O’Reilly an even greater presence on the network. In February, O’Reilly’s contract with Fox News was renewed for another 4 years, which came with a salary of $25 million. Additional provisions in the new contract stated that O’Reilly could be fired if new claims or other related developments surfaced.
In April, The New York Times revealed that O’Reilly was involved in five sexual harassment settlements, which caused federal prosecutors to start investigating O’Reilly. The prosecutors requested that Fox to submit all materials relating to sexual harassment allegations against O’Reilly. This would include all documents about the Wiehl settlement, which Fox lawyers expected would become public. O’Reilly was dismissed in mid-April with a payout of $25 million.
The discovery of the Wiehl’s settlement is just one more example of sexual harassment allegations coming to light in the media. Recently, allegations have been stacking up against Harvey Weinstein, a prominent producer in Hollywood. This case also connects to the rise of the #MeToo campaign on social media in which women online are speaking out about sexual harassment and assault.
O’Reilly maintains that he has never mistreated anyone and denies all allegations. He believes that his high status and wealth makes him a target of such claims. He also blames the media for publishing corrupt articles and disgracing his name. O’Reilly says his reason for settling privately is to shield his children from publicity that would result from a public case. O’Reilly continues to defend himself through news outlets and his own personal website.